


The Long Way Down

by thetransgirlwhoneverwas



Series: Fictober 2019 [13]
Category: Bernice Summerfield (Books & Audio), Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 04:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21048470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetransgirlwhoneverwas/pseuds/thetransgirlwhoneverwas
Summary: Quintessential problems can require innovative solutions, but the Summerfields are never ones for overly complicating matters. Sometimes simplicity works just as well.Knowing this is not helping Benny get down from the tree she's stuck in.





	The Long Way Down

For the first time in a while, Peter Summerfield found himself unable to stop laughing. He couldn’t even pay attention to what Ruth or Jack were saying, even though they were right next to him, although that was partially because they couldn’t stop laughing either. He thought he’d needed some real lightness in his life recently, but he never expected it to come from the fact that on a routine pickup on a forest planet, his mother had gotten stuck up a tree.

“Someone get Irving, now!” Bernice shouted from the top of a tree that she probably thought was taller than it was, clinging onto a thick limb for dear life and unaware that nobody was listening for laughing too hard. She had only climbed it to find where they had left their shuttle, and had now been there for almost ten minutes.

“He’s not here!” shouted back Ruth in between giggles. “He didn’t come with us, remember?”

“Then how the bloody hell am I supposed to get down from here?” Bernice yelled at her ineffectual companions. “He’s the only one with enough sense to actually do something!”

“Do you...do you-” Jack started, but was interrupted by another round of cackling. When he finally took a deep breath, he stopped laughing for long enough to ask “do you really think he wouldn’t be laughing as well?” before collapsing into laughter again.

“Irving is going to laugh so hard when we tell him about this,” Peter giggled - actually _giggled_ \- in the direction of his mother.

“_None_ of you are going to tell him, or I’ll make you regret it!” Bernice replied.

“How?” Ruth inquired, stifling more laughter. “By landing on us?”

This sent the group into another fit of howling, Jack literally falling over, unable to keep himself upright at Benny made inarticulate rage noises at them.

“Loathe as I am to see you back on the ground, why don’t you just climb down the way you climbed up?” Jack questioned.

“Because the branch I used to climb up here snapped when I stepped down onto it, and also I’m really quite high up in case you hadn’t noticed!” Benny called from no more than twenty-five feet above ground.

“Can you not hang down from that limb and get your feet onto another one?” Peter asked, still chuckling to himself.

“Not really, I don’t particularly want to fall!”

“Oh, come on, you won’t get injured from that height!” Ruth chided her.

“Maybe not,” Bernice called back. “But it would still hurt!”

“Honestly, your mother,” Ruth mocked, turning to Peter.

“Don’t look at me, you’re the human,” Peter shot back. “Us Killorans are made from tougher stuff.”

“You’re half human,” Jack observed.

“Not today I’m not,” Peter didn’t even look at Jack when responding.

“I noticed none of you are trying to help me!” Benny called at them, drawing their attention back to her predicament and causing another round of laughter, prompting yet another angry yell from her.

“Well, we don’t want to get stuck up there with you,” Jack called back to her.

“I’ll tell you where you can stick it, Jack!” came the furious reply, accompanied by a middle finger to several “oooh”s and one “get her!”. This only resulted in the angry shaking of the middle finger, until the owner of the finger lost balance and quickly snapped her hand back to the limb she was still holding onto.

“Okay, okay,” Peter shook his head, the novelty of the situation having just about worn off. “I’m coming up to help.”

“Absolutely not!” Benny replied, sounding genuinely horrified by the prospect. “One of my friends, fine, but my son? I’d never hear the end of it!”

“Okay, fine,” Peter shook his head again, stepping back from the tree. “Who would _you_ like to rescue you?”

“I don’t know!” Benny shouted. “Jack, you can just jump up here!”

“Jump?” Jack asked incredulously.

“Yes, come on, you’re a Kadeptian!”

“A lazy Kadeptian, yes,” Jack retorted. “And one who’s having far too much fun watching you stuck up a tree to do anything about it, thank you very much. Ha.”

“I’m not getting anywhere near where you are,” Ruth chimed in. “I might not get down again, and then you’d all start laughing at me instead of you.”

“How supportive of you!” replied Benny, her sarcastic glare sharp enough to cut glass.

“For the love of…” Peter relented. “Right, I’m coming up, and you don’t have a say in the matter mum.”

“Oh, urgh, fine, just get me down from here before I lose my grip!” Benny stopped arguing.

Peter started to climb the tree, his half-Killoran strength giving him a marked advantage as he swiftly pulled himself up until he was just below his mother. He reached out towards her, steadying himself with one hand on the trunk.

“I want you to let go now, and I’ll catch you.”

“Definitely not!”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Not after the last fifteen minutes!”

Peter’s ears drooped in mock disappointment. “Okay, fine, I guess we’ll just have to leave you here-”

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!” Benny scrambled. “Okay, okay, I’ll let go. Just be ready, Peter!”

“Of course, mum,” he reassured her.

Benny started to lean to the side, loosening her grip on the tree limb. “Okay, come on Benny, you can do this, Peter’s got you. Three, two, o-OH CRAP!”

Benny leaned slightly too far and slipped, losing her grip on the limb and falling towards the ground. She continued to scream for several seconds after Peter caught her in one arm with minimal effort and, rolling his eyes hard enough that Ruth and Jack could see it, started to climb down to the ground. Once they were at ground level and Benny had stopped screaming and opened her eyes, she immediately fell to the ground.

“Oh, precious earth, I promise I’ll never leave you again,” she sighed in relief. Peter smirked while Jack and Ruth applauded with palpable sarcasm.

“You’re going to have to leave the ground when we get back to the _Irverfield_,” Ruth observed.

“Shush,” Benny shot back and continued to hug the floor.


End file.
